Rooter (Double H Romance) (20 page)

The sound that used to bring me so much joy now sends waves of panic through my system when I hear Rooter pull up.

“Sophie,” Rooter shouts and the door opens.

He pushes past Joe into the house. My heart pounds and adrenaline surges through me. I slap him with all my strength the moment he stands before me. He grimaces and rubs his jaw.

“What are you doing here?” I shout.

“What are
you
doing here?” He barks and looks at Joe then back at me.

“Trying to stay the hell away from you!”

He throws his head back and laughs as though I’ve just told the funniest joke he’s ever heard. “That’s never going to happen. Let’s go.” He grabs my hand and tugs me toward the door. “Now.”

I yank my hand away and take several steps backward. “I’m not going anywhere with you! Go back to your skank.”

Rooter takes a deep breath and closes the distance between us. “Do you really want to do this here?”

“I don’t want to do it at all.” I point at the still open door where Joe is still standing, watching us in disbelief. “I want you to leave!”

“I’m not leaving without you.” His voice is ominous.

“Well, I’m not leaving!”

“Yes, you are.”

If I didn’t know Rooter the way I do, I’d be overcome with fear. As he stands before me, every muscle in his body is tense. His breathing is erratic, and he’s staring at me with wild eyes. But I’m not afraid so I stand my ground and cross my arms in defiance.

“No, I’m not!”

Rooter gives me an evil, eerie smile. “I’ll carry you out of here if I have to.”

“Touch me and Joe will call the cops.”

Rooter glares at Joe, who is standing by his open front door, and bellows. “Fuck the cops. Call them. We’ll be gone before they get here.”

“Just go, please.” My emotions switch from anger to blatantly overwhelmed and tears pour from my eyes.

Rooter reaches out for me but I step back when his hand makes contact with my arm. He no longer looks angry, but rather sad. His muscles relax a tiny bit and he sweeps a hand through his dark hair. When he speaks, his voice is pleading. “Sophie, it’s not what you think.”

I grab the back of my head with both bands and squeeze. “I’m so fucking sick and tired of you saying that! How dumb do you think I am?”

“I know what it seems like, damn it! But it really isn’t what you think!”

I cross my arms again and grip my biceps much too tightly. The pain is a welcome distraction. “I don’t care what it is, Rooter. I want this to be over.”

“Well, that isn’t happening.”

Why won’t he leave me alone?
I wipe my tears with the back of my hand. “Why are you doing this? Is this some sick joke to you?”

“Baby, no. God no!” Rooter looks like I’ve struck him with a dagger and reaches out and touches my face.

“Stay away from me!” I smack his hand away and take yet another step backward. I’m running out of room. A few more steps and I’ll be pinned to the wall. “Just go!”

Rooter makes a steeple with this fingers covering his nose and his mouth. “Sophia,” he sighs and drops his hands, “you have two choices here. You can hear me out the easy way or you can hear me out the hard way.”

Chapter 24
Another Explanation

The hard way?
I don’t even want to know what that means.
“Rooter, don’t you understand that I’m tired of hearing you out when it comes to her?”

“Yes, I do. But I’m telling you, what happened tonight was completely innocent.”

“Innocent or not, you lied to me. You said you had club business, and you were with her!”

There’s nothing he can say to change that fact. He told me one thing and did another. And he did it with the very person we’ve been arguing over for the past few days.

I glance at Joe and think back to the words he said earlier. Maybe I’d be better off with a guy like him. He’s kind, funny, good looking, owns his own business, and lives in a nice house. He seems to live a nice, normal life and probably has zero drama. I bet I wouldn’t need to worry about psycho ex-sluts if I was with him. He did say he’d wait for me. At this rate, he might get his chance sooner than later.

As though he’s reading my mind, Rooter turns my face to his and orders Joe to give us a moment alone. Joe looks at me for approval and I nod prompting him to leave the room. This is humiliating. I can’t believe this is happening at Joe’s house of all places. I should’ve gone home. I cross my arms and glare at Rooter waiting for him to give me his lame ass excuse.

“Sophie, I didn’t lie. I was with the club. I was at our annual summer party.” Rooter looks down and rubs the back of his neck. His typical nervous gesture. “My mom throws it every year. I knew Candace would be there, so I tried to get out of it. But it’s something my family does for the members and with my rank in the club I had a responsibility to be there.”

Okay, so it’s not a completely lame ass excuse, but I’m not appeased. It doesn’t explain everything. “Why didn’t you tell me the truth?”

Rooter looks at me, pensive. “I wanted to, but with everything that’s gone down the past couple days with her, and you being pissed off at me…” He rubs his face with both hands. “I wanted to take you, but we both know what would’ve happened if I did. If I would’ve told you the truth about what was going on, it would’ve hurt you. I was protecting you.”

I understand what he’s saying and while his reasoning is better than I expected, it doesn’t make me feel much better. Because of Candace and her bullshit antics, I was the one lied to and left out. “So again, she wins.”

“What are you talking about?” He furrows his brow, confused. “Wins what?”

“No matter what, she’ll always be around because of her history with the club. She gets to be there and I don’t. I won’t be in a relationship with you like that.”

Rooter’s eyes go wide with panic. He reaches out and clutches my arms. “Sophie, this shit with her ends tonight. I’m putting a stop to it. I’ll tell her no more phone calls or texts. It’s done.”

I laugh, but instead of joyful, it’s sinister. “Like that’ll matter. She’s not going anywhere.”

“She’ll always have ties to the club, yes, but not with me.”

“Yes, she will.” I pull away and shuffle to the large picture window. It’s pitch black outside so I can’t see anything. I close my eyes and bow my head. “She always will.”

“Sophie, I’m asking you to trust me.” Rooter comes up behind me and stands so close I can feel the heat that radiates from his body. His close proximity confuses me. It’s both upsetting and comforting. Part of me wants to wrap my arms around him and never let go while the other part wishes he’d leave and never return. “Trust me that
nothing
is going between her and me. Yes, I run into her from time to time and I probably always will, but it doesn’t mean anything. She’s just somebody I know.”

But she’s more than somebody he knows. She’s somebody he’s kissed and touched and had sex with. She knows him in ways I don’t.

“How can I trust you when you lie to me?”

“I didn’t lie.”

Infuriated, I spin around and jab my index finger into his chest. “You lied by omission!”

He takes a half step back in surprise. “Can’t you understand why I felt uncomfortable telling you?”

Yes. But it doesn’t make me any less angry. “It’s too much, Rooter. I can’t deal with this.” I try to step around him but he holds me firmly in place.

Rooter loses hold of his cool, controlled demeanor. His body tenses and he glares at me through narrowed eyes. “Well, you’ll have to deal with it because I’m not going anywhere.”

I ball my hands into fists and scream. “Fuck!”

“Babe,” he says the word gently, but his disposition remains fierce, “there’s nothing Candace can say or do to change the way I feel about you. You’re the one I want. The
only
one.”

I believe everything he has said. Especially the part that he isn’t going anywhere. I measure my options, but the only one I have—the only one he’s giving me—is to get over this right now and leave with him. But I’m not ready to get over it.
Dammit!
I am so pissed. But it doesn’t matter. I’ve lost this argument. I close my eyes and bite my bottom lip. His hands are still on my arms holding me in place. I inhale slowly.

“If I leave with you, I want you to take me home and leave me alone for the night.”

“There’s no “if.” You
are
leaving with me.”

My eyes fly open. Who the hell does he think he is? He doesn’t own me. Maybe I should stay to teach him a lesson. “You don’t control me. I’ll do what I want, Rooter. If I want to stay here, I will.”

He tosses his head back and laughs. “I don’t think so.”

I try to jerk away but he grips me tighter, holding me against my will. Anger bursts inside me and it takes every ounce of my self-control not to knee him in the crotch. “You can’t stop me.”

Wildness flares in his eyes. “From staying the night with another man? Yes, the hell I can.”

I roll my eyes. “I wouldn’t be staying
with
him, Rooter.”

“You won’t be staying here at all.” He lets go of my arms and strides to the kitchen counter, grabs my purse and points at the door with it. “Let’s go.”

Exasperated, I shake my head, which I shouldn’t do because it feels like a bomb went off inside it. Damn Jack Daniels. “Let me go tell Joe I’m leaving.”

I start toward the hallway, but Rooter cuts me off. His jaw is clenched.

“I’ll tell him.” He hands me my purse. “Wait here.”

An excruciating throbbing in my head wakes me. The light streaming in through my window is much too bright. According to my alarm clock, it’s just after nine in the morning. I spent most of the night tossing and turning, haunted by visions of Rooter’s wild eyes, vacillating between anger and worry.

Rooter did exactly what I asked him to and took me home. After making sure I get in safe, he left me alone for the rest of the night. Though before leaving he said we need to talk after we’ve both had time to calm down. I don’t know what the hell he needs to calm down about. I wasn’t the one who lied to him and spent the day with my ex-boyfriend after telling him I was going to work.

As angry as I was, it comforts me that he refused to leave me alone and let me stay at Joe’s. Remembering the way he threw his head back and laughed and told me he’d never let me stay away from him makes my skin tingle in a good way.

Rooter is a man who doesn’t shy away from confrontation. He stands up for what he believes and fights for what he wants. If he wants me the way he says he does, he’ll need to sort out this issue with Candace. I will not continue to be lied to. I won’t tolerate him hanging around her behind my back, regardless of the reason. Just because I gave him a pass last night doesn’t mean he can allow it to happen again.

When I sit up, my headache is joined by a loud whooshing sound and I become dizzy. I clutch the sides of my head and take slow deep breaths. Once the dizziness subsides, I roll out of bed and grab the bottle of ibuprofen from my purse. As I make my way down the stairs, I see Miranda sitting on the couch watching television. When she hears me her head snaps in my direction. She looks as hungover as I feel.

“When did you get home?” She croaks.

“Late.” I hold up my bottle and head toward the kitchen. “I need coffee.”

Miranda follows me into the kitchen. “How did you get home?”

“How do you think?” I ask and fill a glass with water to take my pills.

“Rooter?”

“Yup.” I pop the pills into my mouth.

Her mouth falls open and she leans against the counter. “How?”

“He followed Joe home and made me come back with him,” I explain while filling the coffee carafe with water. “Should I make enough for you?”

She shakes her head. “I vaguely remember him freaking out when he saw you weren’t with me. Did you fight?”

“Oh yeah.”

“What did he say about Candace?”

Even though I’m hungover and my head is banging, I go ahead and tell Miranda the whole story. When I’m done, she leans back and stares, mouth agape.

“It’s kind of hot that he refused to go away,” she says.

“Yeah, well, it didn’t seem hot at the time.” I curl my legs under me on the couch and take a sip of my coffee. There’s not enough creamer in it, but I don’t feel well enough to get up and add more.

“But it does now, doesn’t it?” She grins earnestly.

“Yeah, it kind of does.” I smile back but it quickly fades. “But what I don’t get is what he meant when he said he needed to calm down. I didn’t do anything.”

I smacked him and tried to get him to leave, but in the end I gave in and left with him. He has no reason to be mad.

“Yeah, that doesn’t make any sense,” she agrees. “I’m guessing you’ll find out soon enough. When do you think you’ll see him?”

I shrug and look at the clock. It’s five minutes till ten. “Dunno. Hopefully not until I feel better.”

Finally, at ten thirty I get in the shower. The hot water is soothing as it cascades over me. Miranda and I have a rule to make our showers as short as possible to save on the water bill, but today I take my time. After over thirty minutes, I shut the water off and wrap a towel around me. My headache is gone and I’m somewhat back to normal. After brushing my teeth, I amble into my room to get dressed. The unexpected sight of Rooter pacing the floor with a scowl on his face gives me a jolt.

“Is there a reason you’re ignoring me?” He barks and comes to a sudden stop directly in front of me.

“Ignoring you?”

“I’ve been calling and texting all morning.” His angry glare makes me feel small.

“Shit.” I face palm. “I don’t have my phone. I threw it across the parking lot after talking to you last night.”

“Oh.” His expression changes from furious to contrite. If it hadn’t been for the whole Candace disaster I’d have my phone and I would’ve received his calls and texts. “I’m sorry.”

I glimpse my towel covered body. “Can you give me a minute to get dressed?”

Rooter eyes me up and down, taking in my appearance with a ghost of a smile. When his eyes meet mine, they’re kind and warm. “I’ll wait in the hall.”

I quickly throw on a tattered black concert t-shirt and a pair of shorts and open the door. Rooter leans on the wall across from my door, arms crossed with one foot resting against the wall behind him. I can’t help but to marvel at him. His broad shoulders, muscular arms, and tan skin are displayed perfectly in a tight, charcoal colored t-shirt. Gone is any trace of anger or frustration for which I am thankful.

“Come in,” I say and take a seat on my bed.

“How are you this morning?” The mattress concaves as he sits next to me.

“Tired and hungover.”

“You still mad?”

I sigh and rake my fingers through my wet hair. “Yes and no.” He furrows his brow in confusion prompting me to continue. “I understand why you felt you couldn’t tell me the truth. But I need for this issue with Candace to go away.”

“I get that,” he rubs his hands along the top of his thighs, “and I told you last night it will.”

“Okay, but how? How will you make it go away?”

“I’m going to talk to her.” I raise a brow in question and he continues. “Today. I’ll tell her the phone calls and texts must stop.”

“And if they don’t?” I grip the edge of the bed.

He pauses a moment to think and rubs the back of his neck. “I don’t know. But I promise I’ll figure something out.”

“Fair enough.” I turn my body to face him. “And do you promise not to withhold things from me in the future? Even if you think it’ll hurt me or I’ll respond badly to it?”

“Yes, I promise. But you need to understand that Candace is someone I’ll always know. I can’t make her disappear.”

“Rooter, I need to know I can trust you.” He rolls his eyes as though he can’t believe I said that. “You sympathizing with her and allowing her to come between us makes it hard for me. Especially when you withhold information from me.”

He breathes in and out slowly. “I get it, Sophie. It won’t happen again.”

I fall back onto the bed and groan. “I hate that I’m turning into one of those crazy jealous girlfriends.”